Genesis 31–33

JACOB SEPARATES FROM LABAN

31Now Jacob heard what Laban’s sons were saying: “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s and has built this wealth from what belonged to our father.” ²And Jacob saw from Laban’s face that his attitude toward him was not the same as before.

³The Lord said to him, “Go back to the land of your ancestors and to your family, and I will be with you.”^c

⁴Jacob had Rachel and Leah called to the field where his flocks were. ⁵He said to them, “I can see from your father’s face that his attitude toward me is not the same as before, but the God of my father has been with me. ⁶You know that with all my strength I have served your father^{d 7}and that he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God has not let him harm me. ⁸If he said, ‘The spotted sheep will be your wages,’ then all the sheep were born spotted. If he said, ‘The streaked sheep will be your wages,’ then all the sheep were born streaked.^{e 9}God has taken away your father’s herds and given them to me.

¹⁰“When the flocks were breeding, I saw in a dream that the streaked, spotted, and speckled males were mating with the females. ¹¹In that dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ ¹²And he said, ‘Look up and see: all the males that are mating with the flocks are streaked, spotted, and speckled, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.^{f 13}I am the God of Bethel, where you poured oil on the stone marker and made a solemn vow to me.^g Get up, leave this land, and return to your native land.’ ”

¹⁴Then Rachel and Leah answered him, “Do we have any portion or inheritance in our father’s family? ¹⁵Are we not regarded by him as outsiders? For he has sold us^h and has certainly spent our purchase price. ¹⁶In fact, all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has said to you.”

¹⁷So Jacob got up and put his children and wives on the camels. ¹⁸He took all the livestock and possessions he had acquired in Paddan-aram, and he drove his herds to go to the land of Canaan, to his father Isaac. ¹⁹When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.^{i 20}And Jacob deceived^A Laban the Aramean, not telling him that he was fleeing. ²¹He fled with all his possessions, crossed the Euphrates, and headed for^B the hill country of Gilead.

LABAN OVERTAKES JACOB

²²On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. ²³So he took his relatives with him, pursued Jacob for seven days, and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night. “Watch yourself!” God warned him. “Don’t say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”^a

²⁵When Laban overtook Jacob, Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his relatives also pitched their tents in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁶Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and taken my daughters away like prisoners of war! ²⁷Why did you secretly flee from me, deceive me, and not tell me? I would have sent you away with joy and singing, with tambourines and lyres, ²⁸but you didn’t even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters. You have acted foolishly. ²⁹I could do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Watch yourself! Don’t say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ ³⁰Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s family—but why have you stolen my gods?”^b

³¹Jacob answered, “I was afraid, for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force. ³²If you find your gods with anyone here, he will not live!^c Before our relatives, point out anything that is yours and take it.” Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.

³³So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, Leah’s tent, and the tents of the two concubines,^C but he found nothing. When he left Leah’s tent, he went into Rachel’s tent. ³⁴Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of the camel, and sat on them. Laban searched the whole tent but found nothing.

³⁵She said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence;^d I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.

JACOB’S COVENANT WITH LABAN

³⁶Then Jacob became incensed and brought charges against Laban. “What is my crime?” he said to Laban. “What is my sin, that you have pursued me? ³⁷You’ve searched all my possessions! Have you found anything of yours?^D Put it here before my relatives and yours, and let them decide between the two of us. ³⁸I’ve been with you these twenty years. Your ewes and female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams from your flock. ³⁹I did not bring you any of the flock torn by wild beasts; I myself bore the loss. You demanded payment from me for what was stolen by day or by night. ⁴⁰There I was—the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes. ⁴¹For twenty years in your household I served you—fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks^e—and you have changed my wages ten times! ⁴²If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, certainly now you would have sent me off empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and my hard work,^A and he issued his verdict last night.”

⁴³Then Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters; the children, my children; and the flocks, my flocks! Everything you see is mine! But what can I do today for these daughters of mine or for the children they have borne? ⁴⁴Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I.^f Let it be a witness between the two of us.”

⁴⁵So Jacob picked out a stone and set it up as a marker.^{g 46}Then Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a mound, then ate there by the mound. ⁴⁷Laban named the mound Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Galeed.^B

⁴⁸Then Laban said, “This mound is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore the place was called Galeed ⁴⁹and also Mizpah,^Ch for he said, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight. ⁵⁰If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, though no one is with us, understand that God will be a witness between you and me.”^{i 51}Laban also said to Jacob, “Look at this mound and the marker I have set up between you and me. ⁵²This mound is a witness and the marker is a witness that I will not pass beyond this mound to you, and you will not pass beyond this mound and this marker to do me harm. ⁵³The God of Abraham, and the gods^j of Nahor—the gods of their father^D—will judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. ⁵⁴Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat a meal. So they ate a meal and spent the night on the mountain. ⁵⁵Laban got up early in the morning, kissed his grandchildren and daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban left to return home.

PREPARING TO MEET ESAU

32Jacob went on his way, and God’s angels met him.^{a 2}When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp.” So he called that place Mahanaim.^Eb

³Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the territory of Edom. ⁴He commanded them, “You are to say to my lord Esau, ‘This is what your servant Jacob says. I have been staying with Laban and have been delayed until now. ⁵I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female slaves. I have sent this message to inform my lord, in order to seek your favor.’ ”^c

⁶When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau; he is coming to meet you—and he has four hundred men with him.”^{d 7}Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; he divided the people with him into two camps, along with the flocks, herds, and camels. ⁸He thought, “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it, the remaining one can escape.”^e

⁹Then Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac,^f the Lord who said to me, ‘Go back to your land and to your family, and I will cause you to prosper,’^{g 10}I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. Indeed, I crossed over the Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two camps. ¹¹Please rescue me from my brother Esau, for I am afraid of him; otherwise, he may come and attack me, the mothers, and their children. ¹²You have said, ‘I will cause you to prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to be counted.’ ”^h

¹³He spent the night there and took part of what he had brought with him as a gift for his brother Esau:^{i 14}two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes, twenty rams, ¹⁵thirty milk camels with their young, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys. ¹⁶He entrusted them to his slaves as separate herds and said to them, “Go on ahead of me, and leave some distance between the herds.”

¹⁷And he told the first one, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to? Where are you going? And whose animals are these ahead of you?’ ¹⁸then tell him, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau. And look, he is behind us.’ ”

¹⁹He also told the second one, the third, and everyone who was walking behind the animals, “Say the same thing to Esau when you find him. ²⁰You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’ ” For he thought, “I want to appease Esau with the gift that is going ahead of me. After that, I can face him, and perhaps he will forgive me.”

²¹So the gift was sent on ahead of him while he remained in the camp that night. ²²During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two slave women, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of Jabbok.^{j 23}He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.

JACOB WRESTLES WITH GOD

²⁴Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until…